Let Islam Be A Lesson For America’s Socialists

I was watching a series of videos recorded by Robert Spencer of Jihadwatch today. It is an excellent series of videos, and should be required viewing for everyone in the United States, and especially for politicians. This is because Robert Spencer is one of the very few people who truly understands Islam, and the deadly threat that we in the West face from it. With few exceptions, you are not told the truth about Islam, since the main stream media is terrified of Islam. In fact, in just the last few days, South Park had to censor one of it’s shows because the show’s creators had their lives threatened! (Of course, there is nothing unusual in the fact that people who speak out against Islam often have their lives threatened. The most infamous case was that of author Salmon Rushdie, who had a fatwa for his murder issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini after he wrote “Satanic Verses”. Some people who speak the truth about Islam have even been killed, like Theo van Gogh. But, the whole point of the South Park episode was about people allowing Islam to censor what they say, and then South Park caved-in to Islamic censorship.) Sad.

But, episode 27 was a truly eye-opening discussion on the reasons for the stagnation present in the cultural and economic situations in Muslim nations.

As anybody who has followed Islam, and looked into the situation in Islamic countries realizes, it is well known that those countries tend to be poor and backward. And, of course, the reason for that is Islam itself, as Robert explained. Islam teaches that everything that occurs happens because it is the will of Allah. Thus, if you are poor, it is because Allah wants you to be poor. If you are rich, it is because Allah wants you to be rich. Personal initiative simply does not exist in Islam. In this episode, Robert Spencer explained this very clearly. (And, of course, if you are banging your head on the ground 5 times a day, with your ass raised for Allah to do his bidding, there is not much time left for work, anyway, but this is just my opinion.) But he also goes into an even more insidious reason why Islamic nations tend to be so poor and backward. It is because nobody, at least no Muslims, do any real work. They let the dhimmis do the work. Islamic law dictates that non-Muslims pay the jizya, which is essentially protection money. (If you don’t pay, and you don’t convert to Islam, you must be killed according to the Koran.) Islamic societies live off this protection money. Just look at places like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. A huge proportion of the workers are basically something between slaves and and indentured servants. (Of course, in Muslim countries they are called “guest workers” or something like that. But, the fact is that they are not much more than slaves, and there are, in fact, many slaves in Muslim countries today.)

Robert’s most insightful statement, as this video applies to the non-Muslim world, and especially Europe, which is largely socialistic at this point, and the United States which is rapidly becoming a socialist state, was when he said: “Once you run out of dhimmis, your society stagnates.” He did not go into the socialistic implications of this statement, but it rang out loud and clear to me. In America, you can see the bumper sticker “Socialism: A great idea ’til you run out of other people’s money”. (Full disclosure, I have this one on my truck.) Ayn Rand’s brilliant novel “Atlas Shrugged” was based on the fallacy of socialism. In it, the hero, John Galt, decided to round up all of the producers, like himself, and essentially go on strike. Then, the leaches in society had nobody to suck off, and society and the economy collapsed. It is a sad fact that more people now work for the government in the United States than work in manufacturing jobs. (That is to say, more people work for government than work in productive jobs, because the government does not produce anything; it just takes.) That is a very dangerous fact. And, we keep hearing that taxes may have to be increased. As it is, about 47% of Americans pay NO federal income taxes. They leave that nasty duty to the achievers. Well, as happened in Atlas Shrugged, at some point, the achievers will say NO. Enough is enough! At some point, America’s achievers may “go Galt”. If marginal taxes reach a certain level, many achievers will simply take the rest of the year off after their marginal rate hits a certain level, rather than working for less per hour than someone whose total job responsibility consists of asking “Do you want fries with that?” Think about it. It was not too long ago that the United States had a marginal tax rate over 90%! That meant that if you made $100/hour, after a certain point, the government stole more than $90 from you for every hour you worked. You got to keep less than $10/hour. If you are sane, and your time is worth $100/hour, why would you work for less than $10/hour? I certainly wouldn’t. (In fact, in this situation, with minimum wage laws, an achiever making less than $10/hour could be challenging minimum wage laws, since some states have declared a minimum wage at close to $10/hour.)

And, lets remember that there are many people, ranging from corporate executives to doctors, whose time is worth far more than $100/hour. In many cases, their time is worth more than $500/hour. But, if you have established yourself in one of those trades that are only available to achievers who have worked to achieve those pay levels, why would you work for less, per hour, than a plumber or electrician? (And, please, do not take this as denigrating plumbers or electricians. I am only pointing out that some people have sacrificed years of their lives, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, to reach a certain level of expertise, along with which they are entitled to a certain level of compensation. To expect a brain surgeon to work for the same hourly wage as an electrician is ludicrous. Only Carl Marx, himself, and perhaps Barack Obama, could envision such a situation.)

Today, a huge percentage of Americans are dependent on the government to at least some degree. According to a 2009 Heritage Foundation report, over 60 million Americans are now dependent on the government for housing, food, and medical care. This is truly shocking, and something that would have the founding fathers not turning over in their graves, but literally spinning in them! It’s a shame that Ponzi is not alive. Perhaps he could have started the Ponzi Prize, just like Alfred Nobel started the Nobel Prize. But then, social security and other government programs would almost always win the prize; who likes a rigged contest.

There is another quote that comes to mind. It is often attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville, but it probably originated elsewhere. But, it is something to think about, as we see it happening in the United States. “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.”

America had better wake up before it is too late. Unfortunately, I think that with the one-two punch of the bailout bill and the health care takeover, it may be too late. Our only hope, now, is probably to officially declare national bankruptcy.